DCache Administration Interface

Administration Interface

dCache provides a (user unfriendly) admin interface that lets you study the different components (cells) that make up the dCache system. It can be accessed on port 22223:

 ssh -l admin -c blowfish -p 22223 localhost

and the default password is dickerelch.

From logging in, the admin interface can be navigated by cd'ing into different dCache cells. Users must be warned however that the interface is sensitive to the case of the cell name and to the use of arrow-keys (there is no command history). Also, commands that work in one cell will return an error when executed in another. Changes made within the admin interface are saved in the file /opt/dcache/config/PoolManager.conf but the user must remember to enter save at the command line before exiting the interface (alternatively edit the file by hand when the dcache pool process has been stopped). Usage example The commands available in each admin module are different. A list of commands can be displyed in each module by typing help at the prompt.

When trying to diagnose file transfer problems with a dCache instance, it can be useful to study the number of get requests in the SRM (or equivalent) admin module by running the command:

 ls -get

in the module. If you have an information provider running then the requests could be legitimate users and you should be careful about cancelling them indiscriminately, but if you don't then they are probably all dteam. Cancelling all of them can be done with:

 cancelall -get .*

otherwise cancel them individually with:

 cancel "id number of request"

Administration Interface GUI

The dCache collaboration have created a GUI java implementation of the admin interface. It is run using the command:

 java -jar org.pcells.jar

Create a new session using New, then use the Setup button to modify the profile of the seesion to match that of the dCache admin node that you want to login to. Once logged in, double clicking on the background will bring up a list of cells in your dCache system. The GUI is an easier interface to use than the command line interface since all of the dCache cells are listed such that you do not have to `cd' between them. Buttons are also provided for the most used commands (info and help). A tab is provided to show current details of the cost module that your dCache implementation is using. The figures for CPU and storage balancing can be changed here to see what effect they would ultimately have on your install. To make the change in the system, the new values must be entered using the relevant commands in the interface. `save' must still be used to make changes persist.